Pink Brutus Knits Blog

Seed to Sprout | Re-Release or Resurrection

Every time I find myself discussing the upcoming release of my knitting book, the topic of accuracy comes up. This is a huge problem within the knitting community and understandably so! There are few things more frustrating than purchasing a pattern (or book), investing in hundreds or thousands of yards of yarn, and realizing the pattern has errors. Most of the time I can spot a typo and infer where to go from there - like a line ending with k3 when every other line ends with k4. However, for less experienced knitters or those less comfortable making those types of judgements, that simple slip of the keyboard will send them in a tail-spin.

Other times, the problem is deeper than that and I've been there. There was a book I purchased years ago and every time I tried knitting from it, I ran into problems. My husband was so tired of my complaints he demanded I throw the thing in the trash. Publishers are great about posting errata and for the aforementioned book, there were pages and pages of it.

The flip-side to all of this is that designers are people, too and to be frank, shit happens. The seed to sprout shawl was the first piece I took a swing at charting for. I downloaded FREE charting software and it was crap, but I just did what I could with it and hoped for the best. About a year later I finally invested in proper software and thought it would be a good idea to update the charts for the pattern. Something, somewhere went wildly out of control and I got a few emails asking if there were errors. At that point I had spent hours updating all of the charts and the thought of even opening the file again made me sick. I threw some quick fixes on the pattern and called it a day.

This relatively simple shawl was becoming a nag - I would occasionally see my samples hanging up and think about the sloppy, pieced together pattern that was lurking out there in the world. I had to let it simmer on the back burner for almost another year while I handled the far more pressing knitting deadlines for the book and magazines. When 2015 came knocking, that shawl was at the top of the list. I was going to resurrect that thing one way or another. AND SO, that's what I did. I started from the top and re-worked every single line word for word and scrapped the old, overly complicated charts, replacing them with written stitch instructions accompanied by charts for reference or preference.

I knit a fresh new sample to go along with the fresh new pattern.

Knit in Malabrigo Rios for the body, and Spud and Chloe Fine for the edge, I think the contrast of the soft, thick single ply framed by the crisp, willowy plied yarn is positively delicious. I simply changed to the contrasting yarn after the final ridge section before starting the Large Leaf Lace.

NOW, here's the fun part. I'm going to give you this pattern for FREE for exactly 24 hours (ended 1.22.15 at Noon EST - now available on Ravelry or under Featured Patterns) because, well, you all deserve it. If you've already purchased this pattern, keep your eyes peeled because the updated pattern with a gift is headed out via Ravelry. I'm so thankful for this community of knitters and want to express my appreciation for the support I've received over the years.